New Lafourche jail: Who pays and how?

Tuesday

THIBODAUX — Members of a panel charged with identifying ways Lafourche Parish will pay for a new jail or upgrade its old one took their first step Monday toward solving the multimillion-dollar riddle.

Members of an advisory panel questioned Sheriff Craig Webre’s corrections budget for 2009. They also discussed the relationship between his office and the Parish Council concerning who will pay for what.

THIBODAUX — Members of a panel charged with identifying ways Lafourche Parish will pay for a new jail or upgrade its old one took their first step Monday toward solving the multimillion-dollar riddle.

Members of an advisory panel questioned Sheriff Craig Webre’s corrections budget for 2009. They also discussed the relationship between his office and the Parish Council concerning who will pay for what.

The 15-person Five Star Committee, appointed by the Parish Council, is expected to make recommendations in November on whether a new jail is warranted, how large it should be, where it should be built and how much it will cost.

“The sheriff has said repeatedly we could spend somewhere in the $50 million range,” said Alfred “Freddie” Delaune, chairman of the group’s Finance Sub-Committee, which met Monday. “The question is where do we come up with the money?”

“I do believe a consultant holds the keys to many of the questions we’re asking,” Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph said.

The committee has already mentioned one potential consultant. Dan Rome from Blake Consulting in League City, Texas, is expected to present financing options.

Even with a capable consultant, the search for money to pay for a jail, whether through grants, taxes or bonds, will be a significant challenge, jail Warden Alan Abadie said.

Abadie said that under state law the parish is designated as provider of jails while the sheriff is designated the jail’s keeper.

This means the parish pays for much of the building of the jail, while the Sheriff’s Office assumes many of the costs after construction is completed, Abadie said.

The group discussed ways to cut current spending, such as reducing repair costs and making management run more efficiently.

Cutting current spending could be difficult since there is not a great deal of excess in the $4.4 corrections budget, said Delaune, vice president of Bollinger Shipyards and a committee member.

He expressed hope that Webre’s connections as former president of the National Sheriff’s Association could bring money to the project, possibly through grants or other means.

The group also weighed the pros and cons of building a jail with enough beds to house hundreds of inmates from other parish jails, as well as state and federal prisons.

Some members suggested this could help pay off the jail faster, with the downside being a lack of beds for local inmates as the parish grows.

“It’s going to be a group effort that requires the entire community to pull together,” said panel member Cliff Dickerson, a Lockport lawyer and general counsel for Bollinger Shipyards.

Staff Writer Raymond Legendre can be reached at 448-7617 or raymond.legendre@houmatoday.com.

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